I am amateur photographer and nature enthusiast Joe DuChene, and this is my personal website. My goal is to promote The Great Swamp Conservancy of which I am a member. Please visit their official sites linked here on the blogroll. Better yet come hike the conservancys east side trail system, it's what I enjoy and where all these images were captured.

On The Way Home

Upon leaving the conservancy Sunday I stopped a few miles away, along Black Creek at Verona Beach State Park. The intent was to take some photos of ducks with their chicks. There were none on this day, however. What I did come away with was not quite so cute.

click on photo to enlarge

Turkey Vulture

Dining on something that smelled horrendous, a startled group of Turkey Vultures took short flight to the nearby trees upon my presence.

Enjoying nature comes from not getting what you expect but rather from observing what you’re given.

In 1938, the Union Oil Company discovered that by injecting a strong-smelling organic chemical called mercaptan into gas lines, they could readily find leaks by monitoring vulture activity above the pipelines. Some mercaptans smell like rotting cabbage or eggs. They and related chemicals are released as carcasses decompose.

The above paragraph was taken from an article found at Cornell University’s All About Birds web site. You can click here to read the complete article.